| Cartoon Overview
Mudflap is the other half of the Autobot duo referred to as "the twins" by the Autobot's human allies, NEST. With Skids he initially transforms into half of an ice cream truck - this is the form that he uses during Revenge of the Fallen's opening scene in Shanghai, China. The twins botched their part in the mission, crashed out and started squabbling.
On their return to NEST HQ in the USA, the twins were given upgrades. Skids and Mudflap argued over which of them would get to be the green Chevy Beat - Skids won, leaving Mudflap to scan the Chevy Trax.
Skids and Mudflap went with Bumblebee after Bumblebee rescued Sam, Leo and Mikaela from Megatron's clutches. They stayed to protect Sam and his friends (and crack wise about Leo's understandable confusion and fear at the whole situation) following The Fallen's declaration that unless Sam was handed over to him he would bring about the end of all civilization as humanity knew it.
Mudflap stayed with the group as they went on a journey around the world, first to track down "Robo Warrior" an online rival of Leo's who turned out to be former Sector Seven agent Seymour Simmons. Then he went with the group to the Smithsonian and ultimately, thanks to Jetfire, to Egypt. In Egypt, Skids and Mudflap's arguing actually helped to solve the mystery of the strange Cybertronian symbols that Sam had been seeing - during one of their quarrels, they damaged a wall in an ancient temple, exposed the Tomb of the Primes hidden beyond.
Mudflap and Skids went with Simmons after this, as a part of Simmon's attempt to lead the Decepticons away from Sam and Bumblebee. This led to Skids and Mudflap facing off against the most powerful Decepticon engine of destruction of all - Devastator. Mudflap fell victim of Devastator's vortex grinder weapon and was sucked up - but proved to be too tough to destroy, and instead blasted his way out through the side of Devastator's face when Devastator shut down the grinder. With Skids, Mudflap swung off the cran on Devastator's left arm and blasted Devastator with firepower, inflicting some damage on Devastator. However, Devastator shook both Autobots off and left them in the dust. Skids and Mudflap were left out of action after this, however they may have been down, they were not out. They will surely return in the future, hopefully wiser for their experience.
But with these guys, don't expect too much.
An analysis of Skids & Mudflap's personalities and development in Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, by 2005 Boards member mx-01 archon
They're like kids who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons, reading comic books, and generally worshipping superheroes, imagining themselves as becoming said heroes when they grow up. And suddenly, and shockingly, reality pulls them into that exact scenario. They've suddenly been dumped into war alongside their revered heroes. What do they do? They let it get to their heads. They get dragged along on live missions for observational training, but rather than take it seriously, they only see it as a sign of how cool they are, for being hand-picked by the greatest of heroes to join in their missions. They get big heads, and completely fail to take their situation seriously, generally continuing to blunder through their lives in their naivete. And making things worse, things turn sour with the death of Optimus Prime, and along with Bumblebee, they get separated from NEST, and thus any sort of command structure, generally allowing them to continue on as they have been without reprimand.
In short, as soldiers, they're green as green can be, with no practical combat expertise whatsoever, unless you count emulation of pop-culture heroes as combat expertise (Skids: "Hey look, I'm a ninja!"). But worse is the fact that their own delusions of grandeur have been allowed to propagate for too long.
Then, beyond their wildest of imaginations, the biggest, meanest, most destructive Decepticon threat, in the form of Devastator is unceremoniously dropped into their laps. They've got humans to protect, and none of the veteran Autobots are there to bail them out. For probably the first time in their lives, they're in real danger. They're caught in Devastator's deadly wake, and Skids faces the very real possibility of losing his brother. In this moment, the two finally realize the true scope of the war. Rather than escape and save his own life, Skids steels himself, knowing that the Decepticon's rampage can't be allowed to continue, and rushes in headlong. Even after Mudflap is revealed to be alive, they don't cut and run, they continue to beat down on Devastator, unmatched as they are, with total disregard for their own lives.
It's a truly heroic and powerful moment. Unlike Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, whose heroic exploits are established and expected, these two have spent the entire two hours' movie length seemingly proving time and again their unsuitability for this war. So defying expectations, they go far and above the call of duty, fully prepared to make the heroic sacrifice.
I feel cheated that they vanished after the Devastator fight. All it would have taken is one very short aftermath scene to hit their character growth home to the audience (then again, the movie's epilogue is rife with omissions like this. Where Bumblebee and Wheelie ended up, etc.). Something like them crawling out from Devastator's wreckage, then Skids trash-talking and berating Mudflap for making him think that he had gotten killed, then giving each other a congratulatory fist-bump, with one of the veteran Autobots nodding their heads in approval. No loss of their established personalities, but with the promise of potential. Appearances
Transformers Movie
Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
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